The Travels Of Dr Hartdegen
by T-U-X-I-D-O-G-R-E-Y
Summary: Just because the machine is gone doesn't mean adventure is. Hartdegen embarks on an Oddessey of sorts, time travel style. Time Machine/TDTESS crossover. Alexander & his friends meet Klaatu in the future.
1. The Beginning

**The Travels Of Dr. Hartdegen**

**Summary:**Just because the machine is gone, doesn't mean adventure has ended. Hartdegen embarks on an Odyssey of sorts, time travel style. Not a soppy Alex/Mara or Alex whining over Emma fic that you see too much of. This is an adventure story. It also isn't so long in minor scenes. It's fast-pace and gets to the point.

**Rating T:** For violence, peril, cursing, brutal fights and child beating

**A/N:** Please review in your honest opinion. However, if you flame, you will get flame back!

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**Chapter 1: The beginning.**

It began one day, the account that was yet to come, when Alexander was walking through the lush bamboo overgrowth near the Eloi Monuments. It was a casual walk, and his mind was thinking like always. Suddenly he was met by a rustle in the bush and to his surprise it was Mara who met him.

"Mara, what brings you here?" he asked smiling.

"I was worried." she replied.

"Worried? Nonsense."

"What are you doing out here?" she asked.

"Just walking I suppose." he mused. "Why don't you join me? I could use the company."

She agreed eagerly and they continued on, though it was little time at all after that when Kalen found them. As the three wandered, picking flowers and admiring strange birds in the trees, they heard a strange sound. To Alex, it sounded like the stopping of some strange machine, and suddenly there was a rumble seeping through the earth. Mara and Kalen, who were very terrified, clung to Alex who kept them close. At last the rambling noise came to a much welcomed end.

"What was that?" Alex pondered in his mutter.

"It is the same thing that happened when you arrived." said Kalen.

"What?!" he questioned and the boy nodded in his honesty.

"Who's there?'' a sudden voice demanded, frantically.

Alex readied himself for anything he could conjure in his mind at the moment. He hesitated as the voice demanded again, apparently it heard them.

"Professor Hartdegen." he said at length.

"Professor Hartdegen?" the voice came to a calm, and in the tone of the stranger there seemed to be some form of misbelief. At last a figure tumbled clumsily before them.

"My God!" Alex said, quickly trying to help the blond woman to her feet who pushed him away in an attempt to re-stand herself.

"I-I," she studied him in utter amazement as she brushed the dirt and leaves off from her clothes. "I- I cannot believe this." there seemed to be a small grin easing onto her lips.

"Wait," Alex said, "I know you...don't I?"

"Not personally Cappuccino Maker." she said, reaching out to shake his hand. Mara and Kalen were overly confused. "The first inventor of the time machine."

"I don't understand," said Alex, taking his hand away.

"I found your plans, about a year after I first saw you. I had no idea at the time that your machine was in fact what it was. Then I found that you were Dr. Alexander Hartdegen...1869 to 1903. I knew your theories were practical applications. I had studied the fourth dimension for years as I too am a scientist."

After everything was explained and they had nurtured the tired woman back to substantial strength, she showed them her machine. Instead of a shiny brass, it was a type of silvery metal. Not nearly as many pipes and gages as Alexander's version. But instead very sleek and modern. Kind of like a porshe suv compared to a model t ford. After studying it, she showed Alex that unlike his old device where he simply pulled a lever, her machine had a computer, a device that one could easily type in one's destination of time. But something was different, this machine could travel in every dimension. It could go through worm holes, she explained. And travel to any point in the universe. Except only the Earth could really be traveled through like this. Because only it had been calculated on the machine.

Alex was taken away in his astonishment. He was at a loss of words and though his expressions of how impressed he was were simple in his stuttering, the blond woman knew how he felt and she was pleased.

"This is by far the most amazing...I just, I cannot believe it." he exclaimed.

"Wait." Mara halted them, her eyes supicious of the stranger. "Who are you?"

"Oh forgive me." the woman replied. "I'm Dr. Terri Ackner. But you can call me Terri."

"These are my friends, Mara and her brother Kalen. When I landed here, albeit accidentally, they took me in."

"Really?" Terri mused.

"Yes." said Kalen. "We are Eloi."

"Eloi?"

"It is what they call their tribe." said Alex. "Come on, we can further explain ourselves on the way back to the colony."

Terri stayed amongst them for many days, and to Alexander's surprise, the Eloi (namingly Toren) took to her much better than they did he. Perhaps it was Terri's outgoing nature and her exciting stories on the time lines she had traveled to. She also explained to Alex that she left a few years before the moon catastrophe. She also told him and the others the many things she had seen transversing back and forth through time.

"I've seen the great wall of china constructed by traveling back and moving my machine through the worm holes I mentioned, and I've seen the first moon eclipse of the earth. I watched the dinosaurs come and go and I sat in my machine, watching through the time shield as the meteor came and wiped the poor beasts out. I've seen Rome constructed from the beginning, face great battles and then crumble to mere ruins."

"Have you seen what happens to the Eloi?" asked Alex.

"Im afraid this is the furthest in time I've been so far, going forward that is." replied Terri.

"Oh, I see." said Alex.

"Why?" asked Terri.

"Well, you see, I was hoping for a brighter future for them...after I destroyed the Morlocks and all."

"Why not see?" she suggested.

"What?"

"You, me, Kalen and Mara. Let's go into the future and see what becomes of the Eloi."

At first they were apprehensive, but adventure could not be denied, so Alex agreed with Kalen being as enthusiastic as he. Mara though, was a little nervous.

Next day, they packed. Terri told them not to bother with food as she had several MRIs left, but Mara refused to eat anything so strange to her so she packed some fruit for her and Kalen. Secretly Alex was glad. The MRIs looked and tasted strange to him too.

**To be continued.**


	2. Into The Future

**Chapter 2: Into The Future**

As they finished preparing to embark on their journey into the future of the Eloi, Alex was anticipating, Mara was uncertain of the whole idea, Kalen was excited though. As for Terri, she couldn't be more content knowing she had someone, besides herself, to take this journey on with.

They began to climb aboard. Kalen was to sit in the back behind Alex. Mara was to sit by him and Alex was to sit in the passenger seat in the front and of course, Terri was to sit in the Captains seat as she preferred to call it. Mara wasn't so sure she liked this, but being the kind-hearted girl she was, she didn't want Alex to think she was jealous, and she certainly didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. So her emotions were kept to herself.

Right when Terri was preparing to thrust the machine forward into the future - besides typing in the time period that one wanted to go - she could also push a lever forward much like Alexander's old machine.

When they were about to go into the future a rustle in the bushes whipped past their startled ears. Then an explosion from the thicket two very short figures came out. They were both short in stature, the shortest three feet tall and the other no more than four. The tallest had jet black hair, saggy eyes and a thick build. The other was similar in structure but yellow-blond hair. Both of them, males by everyone's assumption, were clad in tattered rags. Their feet bare.

Alex asked them; "Who are you?", In a stern, demanding way that sounded as if the two strangers owed him an explanation, which they did.

"And where do you come from?" Mara put in. She sounded suspicious, but her tone was no where as sharp and commanding as Alexander's. The dark haired male took notice of her immediately, and she looked quite stunning to him, like a little flower he had never seen before. She scrunched her brows at him as he stared her.

The blond male seemed to take to Terri who sat silent as she observed them curiously. He thought she was quite unusual; not as lovely as the tan skinned girl as far as fair features were concerned, but the gleam in her blue eyes intrigued him, in a way similar to a star in the night.

Noticing that the dark haired male was staring blankly into Mara, who was uncomforted by the act, Alexander demanded him once more; "Who are you?! Speak up!"

"Maybe they do not know the Stone Language." Kalen suggested, whispering the words in his shyness.

"Yea we do!" the blond male shouted suddenly, and his voice roused Kalen. Alex shouted back;

"Who are you then!?"

The male responded; "Yenrab!!!" he responded in a shout, assuring the strangers that he feared them not and that he knew very well who HE was and was willing only to reply when HE thought fit. Alexander furrowed his brows in suspicion.

"Alright then, Yenrab, as you call yourself. What about you friend there, is his name Gawker?"

"I'm Derf!" replied the dark haired male, dropping his stare from the pretty Eloi and raising his fist skyward in front of his face.

"Alright," said Alex, calming himself and lowering his threatening tone. He then asked them, "Where do you come from?"

"Not around here." said Yenrab.

"We would think not." Mara told him. Yenrab knew she was throwing a slur.

"We're from another place." said Derf.

"Where then? Tell us already!" said Terri, getting impatient from the interruption of time travel.

Yenrab said; "We don't really know where it is we're from. We just been stayin' up in the mountains, hidin' out and eatin' acorns. When we saw a huge explosion some nights back, we decided to venture down and find out what it was."

"It was the Morlock Caverns." said Alex. "I destroyed them with my time machine."

All a sudden Yenrab's eyes grew wide. He said; "TIME MACHINE?!"

Alex replied; "Yes." in a startled, unnerved manner.

Then Yenrab said; "Where'd you get that?"

"You know what a time machine is?" asked Terri.

Yenrab replied; "Where'd you find yer's?"

Alex replied; "Uh, not from here. I'm from another time you see. And my time machine is gone and I've been living amongst the Eloi." he gestured towards Mara and Kalen.

"Listen," said Terri. "We're about to leave in MY time machine and we don't have, well, time to chat here. Since you fellows are lost, I assume, why not come with us, at Dr. Hartdegen's okay and we'll talk on the way."

Yenrab agreed with no questions, liking that Terri's attention was on him. Derf was apprehensive, not trusting Alex, but a chance to get to know the native girl was all to his liking so he agreed also.

Alex told them where to sit. Kalen was to slip next to Mara on the bench seat they sat on. Alex told Yenrab to sit where Kalen had been sitting. Since there was no other seats, Alex scratched his head mindfully, leaned over his seat to the left with his arm on the armrest, looking about the floor. He told Derf; "I suppose you'll have to sit squatted on the floor in the space separating the front seats from the back."

It was a small space, no more than about two by two in feet. He would be right in front of Kalen's legs, scrunched against the middle area of the front seats, where the lever was. But Yenrab, as well as Derf, protested.

"You mean he'll be right at her armrest?" Yenrab asked, pointing Terri's way.

"What about it?" asked Terri.

"Nothin'." Yenrab stammered. "I just figured you'd rather me be there, since I'm smaller, and he can sit on the seat."

"Now hold it," Derf just realized, he would actually be closer to Mara sitting there. "I don't mind sittin' there. In fact, I'd be more comfortable on the floor."

"I wouldn't be." Mara muttered to herself.

"Don't worry," Kalen whispered to her, knowing what was on his sister's mind, "I'll kick him if he bothers you." Mara gave him a look of thanks.

Alex, losing his patience, demanded them to sit where told and like it. They quickly, without question, sat and shut their traps. Suddenly, Yenrab said to Derf; "You damn sick thing. Sittin' near my property plus the other chick. Ya damn pervert."

Derf gave it a look that said kiss my ***. Luckily only Derf heard Yenrab's words.

The machine began to rumble and buzz as Terri pushed the lever forward almost at the point of take off.

"Prepare yourselves." she warned them. Mara trembled in her seat, gritting her teeth along with Kalen who was now unsure of his own decision of going. And if Mara had it her way, she might have stayed had it not been for her protective ways for Kalen and Alex.

Then the machine grew a shield in the blink of an eye. It was far quicker than Alexander's machine, and the shield was a clear hue of green. It whirled and rambled round them, and as they looked onto their surroundings, things began to change. Day turned to night, night turned to day. Then a streak grew of moon and sun in the sky, it was blinding, and if they stared into it, it would do their eyes more harm than good. Unfortunately Derf did not know this and he stared from the instant the illuminating light grabbed his eyes. It was a fascinating sight and in some way it hypnotized him, almost as much as dear Mara had. But the light was also destroying his eyes, and it ached them and when he heard Alex say, "Look!" he then turned away, saving himself a few more years of sight before going permanently blind. It would take extraordinary medicine to prevent this now, medicine the Eloi didn't have…yet.

Plants grew and died, and all signs of Eloi had already disappeared. Alex became worried, thinking that his attempt to save the tribe had been fruitless. He worried that perhaps some other disaster had stricken them.

He saw that the time machine had only traveled three thousand years so far, though it climbed ever further to five thousand years. Alex could take no more of this suspenseful suspicion as his eyes watched the machine's numbers count forward. He halted Terri, shouting, "STOP!" and she did.

When the machine had come to a full stop, Alex jumped out and began searching through the overgrowth like a lost wild man. Terri shouted, "Hold up!" as she and everyone tumbled after him. She then said, "Shouldn't we get a few things from the machine first?" But her words were ignored. Mara quickly raced to catch up with Alex and Kalen held her hand, staying close behind.

Alex was wandering toward the canyon, hoping to find some small clue of remains of civilization. And eventually he found the canyon. He stood atop the wall, looking down and to his dismay there was nothing. The hovels were gone, and there was no evidence whatsoever, from what he could tell, that the Eloi had ever lived there. His heart sank to his feet, and he felt himself sweat beneath his worn shirt. The sudden touch of Mara's hand on his shoulder made him jump slightly and he looked at her.

"Maybe we moved on." she said, trying to give hope not only to him but to herself.

At last, Terri and the two shorties caught up to the small group, seeing also that there was nothing in the cavern yet having different or lacking emotions of the sight. Yenrab and Derf stared and Yenrab said; "What are ya lookin' at?"

"Something that was once home." Alex replied. Mara felt comforted, strange for the moment, that he considered their Colony his home. She had been worried that his heart longed for his New York.

As they traveled back towards the machine, some of them with heavy hearts, Kalen decided that he desired to explore a new area of jungle that his young eyes did not recognize. Alex agreed without both enthusiasm and hesitation and so they went on, after of course Terri grabbed some supplies from the machine. She was not one to go empty handed…especially in such a strange world.

They walked, listening to the singing of birds.

Kalen then decided; "Let's go this way! The jungle looks younger there." He was familiar with nature and the jungle of which he had grown up exploring. They all went. Yenrab was growing irritated. He had been cocking his head about a little after they had entered the jungle. He would roll his eyes whenever Kalen suggested going further. It was annoying him. Then like a irrupting volcano that could no longer bear the flame, he exploded in words, shouting and ranting and protesting against Kalen's will.

"WHAT ARE WE DOIN'?!" he demanded, huffing and spitting at them.

"Be quiet!" Alex returned to him in harshness. "We're just looking around, that's all."

"You didn't have to go." said Mara, sneering. Derf blushed as she spoke. Her words sounded like the babbling of a brook.

"Oh yea? What if we get lost?!" Yenrab tried. Then Terri said;

"Don't worry. I have a compass."

Yenrab felt his heart flutter with excitement as she spoke so confidently towards him.

"What a woman." he thought.

"Hey," Yenrab spoke again after some silence. "Aren't you supposed to tell us more about who you guys are? We don't even know yer stinkin' names."

"You speak strangely." said Mara. Derf melted.

"Yea. Yea." said Yenrab. Derf thumped him on the head.

"Don't talk to her like that, sicky." he told the blond.

"Eh." sneered Yenrab, annoyed by Derf's crush.

Alex introduced himself in hopes of shutting them up as well as everyone else. They all told the other about themselves. And Mara spoke for Kalen who was leery and hesitant of socialization with the 'storm mouths' as he thought of them.

Yenrab also told them who they were and he as well as Derf described also how sick minded the other was and how disgusting and despicable they were and what imbeciles they were. Andalso how retarded, and how mentally incapable the other was of surviving without the other. By the time they got through spitting words of hate towards the other, Alex, Mara, Kalen and Terri were at no desire to question. In fact, they were eager to change the subject as it looked that the two brutes wanted to tackle each other.

Afterwards there came another bout of silence. A welcomed silence. Kalen continued forward and the adults followed.

Suddenly they saw that the jungle had come to an end. They left it behind them and saw that there was bits of jungle further around them but a clearing before them. They went foreword and came upon a spot where a hill met them. They walked up the hill, realizing that it was not just a hill but a whole elevation of land that was going to a higher peek. When they stopped to look about, they reckoned that they were on a higher portion of the whole land around them but then there was something else; they continued in their original direction on this high peek and found that there was a great allotment of stones, large boulders that were natural in this world, nestled gracefully beneath the growing of vines that sheltered them.

They went right, passing round the boulders and hoping to see more of what was ahead. Then Alex realized that there was something around these boulders. About a mile from where they now stood, was a great city, or more like an Empire of sorts! Buildings towering mountains in the distance, where clouds coiled around the towers, that were so high, Alex compared their height to that of the tallest of mountains. Shorter buildings surrounded them in an organized row. Their architecture was sleek and different from what Alex or Terri, who was from 2030, had ever seen. Alex began to put two and two together. The Eloi were not gone, but had survived the generations of their kind, and had become a great civilization surpassing anything from the past. Alex even noticed that the air was still just as clean and clear to breath. It had not grown stuffy and was as fine to take in as it had been in 802,701. Terri especially, being from a polluted time line, noticed this cleaner air just like Mara and Kalen's times she reckoned.

"My God." Alex uttered in his amazement. The others didn't speak, but instead expressed their shock in their widened eyes and parted lips. Alex insisted on approaching the city.

"Wait!" Mara stopped him, "What if they are hostile?"

"They can't be." he assumed. He went on, and everyone followed his lead. "Kalen my boy, you've made your first great discovery. Thanks to you we found this city." The boy smiled widely, pleased by Alexander's compliment that was greatly valued.

As they trailed towards the city in small haste, Yenrab began to gather ideas in his head.

"I wonder if they could do a plastic surgery on me….maybe make me look like some good lookin' famous guy. Boy, Terri wouldn't be able to keep her hands off me." he thought. "Maybe they can even make me taller." he began to grow quite excited in ideas. It seemed also that these two were full of more secrets than the others knew. Yenrab knew of such things because he came from a place holding much knowledge.

Derf thought that perhaps he could buy some fun toy, a floating space board perhaps that he could impress Mara with. Unlike Yenrab, his ideas were more childish and immature.

They came at last into this great city. In their amazement, there was tanned skin folk all about walking and going about their daily lives. Yet, there were no cars that both Terri and Alex noticed. But instead about thirty feet high from where they stood, was a white bar with an indent in the middle that went inside on the bottom from where they could see, looking up, and this indent continued on as a line. They also noticed that this wide bar was held up by tall beams that, near the top, spread out into an T-arch. Then, on the edges of each T-arch, it went up, shaping it in a forked angle without the middle prong. Then, laying on top of these two points that were aimed skyward, was a flat white bar that connected them, thus holding beneath it the long white track that they had noticed earlier.

Suddenly they noticed, at least Alex, Terri and Mara, a row of little orbs with glass tops and just a bit of solid roof surrounding the glass tops. These were a light color of some sort of grey. The roof of them was attached to the track where it went to a strange little box shape that fit perfectly into the indention; but it appeared that it was not attached to the track but rather hovering beneath and through the square openings at the top of each beam that held the track up as if some magnet was driving it along. It came by them in a row of nine or so of these little orbs. They were gliding by them like the moving of cars and it didn't take long for Terri and Alex to assume that these were the people's way of transport. It seemed more like these orbs were used like a sky lift sort of bus rather than individually owned vehicles because they were moving in a single file line where they were each in perfect sync with the other as they hovered along. Then they came by them ever closer. Terri noticed that there were people within these orbs, about two to three and even six in some and Alex noticed also.

"Look!" said Terri, pointing. And Kalen, Yenrab and Derf stared also at the moving orbs that, when they passed them by, made a quiet humming noise and toward the beam with the T-arch at the top, that went up into two more poles, in the shape of a hollow square that rested on top of each beam. The orbs flied through these squares as they traveled through the city.

Alex and the others continued on as they studied this new civilization that was once the peaceful river-folk.

They all saw what happened to the Eloi. They had become a great, intelligent, eco-balanced people and that they had also advanced in such a way that it surpassed anything Terri, as a scientist, once knew. The Lunar Living Colony was amazing enough, but there was no telling people had accomplished. They were yet to see.

Then they found themselves staring upon another part of this city when someone noticed them. The stranger approached the group, asking in the Stone Language, that apparently had been maintained, if they were lost.

Alex stared at him in slight befuddlement before answering.

"No." said he. "We aren't lost." trying not to look so suspicious in case these Eloi didn't welcome folk from the outside world. "We're just…admiring the city."

"Oh." said the stranger who was a tan skinned man with a very modernistic haircut, similar to Vox's and who wore a suit unlike anything Terri had seen. He then said; "Well, if you want to be directed anywhere particular I can help." he offered.

"Well," said Alex, "We would like some direction I suppose. Is there a place where we can better learn about this city…the history of it all? We're not really from here."

"The public readery." said the stranger. "Or, if you really want to learn more about the history of this city and others, you might be interested in the Photonic Hall."

A Photonic Hall? Alex thought to himself, growing excited and hopeful that Vox had also survived the change of time yet again.

"Where can we find the Photonic Hall?' Alex asked.

"That way, straight. You'll come upon a large blue sign that will direct you to the correct turn and from there you will come upon a great building. It's quite simple."

"Oh, thank you my good man." said Alex, impressed by how intellectual the Eloi had grown. They said their goodbyes and brief thanks and parted. Alex and the other came upon the sign that told them where to turn for the Photonic Hall and like the Eloi said, they came upon the large building that was rather impressive in it's massive architectural size. It was surrounded by jungle gardens and was a little way from the busier section of the city.

As they walked up the long steps of stone, they came to a glass door that was grand in it's height. They opened the doors which seemed to part at the mere touch of a finger as if you didn't have to open them with any force at all. Mara and Kalen cringed in their surprise of this. They had become nervous of everything that passed them by and overwhelmed by the city itself.

Alex was amaze. The building was very modern inside, sleek and shining of marble with grand black marble archways that lined the corridor. There were was a good abundance of people walking about, families and elders and youths. It reminded Alex of how The New York Public Library had looked in 2030.

It wasn't long before the group spotted Vox. They all hoped, mainly Alex, Mara and Kalen that their old Photonic would recall their faces.

Alex saw Vox walking through his glass boundary as he use to do, coming toward them with his usual Photonic grin.

"Vox!" Alex beamed.

"Ah," said the Photonic.

"Do you remember us?" asked Kalen.

"I remember each and everyone of you. Alexander, you Kalen, Mara and even you, Terri. Once you asked me about dinosaurs when you were eight years old."

"Wow." Terri expressed. "Even I forgot that." she chuckled.

Alex explained to Terri of how Vox had survived the moon catastrophe and had become a dear friend and teacher amongst the Eloi and he also assumed that Vox was responsible for their advancement and the Photonic explained that he was, proud as he did so.

"That explains everything." said Alex. "They couldn't have advanced so quickly on their own like this. They had to have a teacher from the beginning, telling them all there was to know of mankind and their previous advancement so that they could move forward quicker, and learn on their own as well."

Then Vox explained something.

"Do you have a compass?"

Terri flashed hers from her coat pocket.

"Hold it level in your hand." Vox told her and she did. "Note the north and south arms are pointing almost east and west."

"Hey, they are." said Terri.

Vox went on, "The Earth's poles changed about two thousand years ago, slowly. They just stopped moving about a hundred years ago. A few disasters took place in this process. But they were nothing so severe that they wiped everything off the face of the planet…like the incident in 2037. There are other civilizations on Earth. But there are only four other than this one. One civilization is all of South America, one is all of Europe and Asia, one is all of Africa, and one is all of Australia and all surrounding Islands in the Pacific near it. And of course this civilization represents all of North America, Greenland. After some turmoil and war, the world is at last at a point of understanding of each other. It's all peace now. Even every individual gets along and lives in peace and understands everything. You might say that human beings have evolved into a perfect race of balance." he went on describing everything and then told them the most startling of news. " About eighty years ago the Eloi spotted a planet getting out of orbit in the solar system. It was Venus. Something had happened to it that the Eloi still do not know. But before it had a collision coarse with any other planet that would cause more destruction in the solar system, thus eventually bringing destruction to Earth, the Eloi had to turn the Earth along with all the other People of this planet, turn the Earth itself into a space ship you might say."

"WHAT!!!?" Alex and Terri spoke at once. Even Yenrab was stunned but he hid his own reaction to this shock…for some reason of his own.

"The Eloi had placed a large space station, if you will, and thus it creates this light that replaces the sun. And it stays in one spot while the Earth rotates, albeit not naturally anymore. The Earth is being turned on it's new axes by another space station which is causing a magnetic pull which forces the planet to rotate as it once did. Right now, we're orbiting through our galaxy at about three thousand miles an hour. The Earth's being pulled along by a large half circular shaped space station that coils around the earth in a perfect half ring. And we've left our old solar system in search of a safer one that can support and sustain our planet." As Vox told all of this, he showed them images of everything he explained in words, giving them a more visual experience of all of this.

Alex and Terri, as well as Yenrab secretly was shocked and speechless. They were overwhelmed in their amazing shock. At length, they said their goodbyes to Vox once he finished and exited from the building, each of them shaken in their thoughts, save Derf who had been daydreaming the whole time only partially listening to Vox's words.

Alex walked out staring into the pale blue sky. He pondered for a moment on man's abilities. As he glanced at Terri, he saw that her face was almost blank as if she had come to a state of loss. Alex thought to himself; "Philby, we DID come to far. But for good reason."

Yenrab and Derf had grown disgusted notably with this new environment accusing every building, stone, plant and road they passerby and also Vox with being a sick, sadistic, twisted freaks of non-natural acts of crime upon mother Earth. Derf was having a quarrel with a weed sprouting from the crack of a sidewalk, accusing it of wanting to start a brawl with him. Yenrab pulled him away quoting; "The bastard ain't worth yer energy. Let's save it for bigger fish.." he wavered his eyes towards Alex who, along with the others, was unaware of their actions. For they were drenched in their own, more peaceful thoughts of all that had come to pass.

**To Be Continued.**


End file.
